Video shows giant sinkhole open on Russian road during traffic jam

Driving in Russia is always dangerous, but a video purportedly shot in the Siberian city of Tyumen shows you don’t even need to be travelling at high speeds to endanger yourself on that country’s roads.

The YouTube clip uploaded May 8 shows cars stopped amid a traffic jam when part of a highway cracks and deforms before crumbling completely into a giant sinkhole about 10 metres across. Miraculously, no cars were swallowed into the hole. One driver whose vehicle was right on the edge of the sinkhole managed to escape by only a few centimetres.

Sinkholes typically form when groundwater erodes away the underlying rocks and dirt, leaving the road surface with less and less support until it collapses. Officials believe the Tyumen sinkhole occurred after heavy rainfall.